PBS KIDS is gearing up for fall back-to-school season, when it will enroll exciting new adventures from award-winning series, resources for families and teachers, and the announcement that Daniel Tiger will soon pounce on a fifth season.
Starting August 5, families across the U.S. can tune in to fun and educational programming, including the premiere of Pinkalicious & Peterrific: A Pinkaperfect Birthday — the show’s first one-hour special; back-to-back episode premieres of Dinosaur Train; and a special Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Family Week” with five new episodes.
“The start of the school year marks a crucial transition for children, families and teachers – and helping them prepare for the year ahead is vital to success in the classroom and beyond,” said Lesli Rotenberg, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, Children’s Media and Education, PBS. “Our PBS KIDS programming supports children’s social-emotional development and school readiness needs with enriching content that is as entertaining as it is educational.”
Along with the themed programming, PBS KIDS will offer new games on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Games App. Kids can explore different ways to dance and express themselves through movement in the sparkly, toe-tapping Pinkamagine Fashion Game, designed for one player or the whole family. Play with the Tiger family as they hide in silly places around their house in Daniel Tiger’s Hide and Seek, a fun way to remind children that people come back, even when they go away for a little while. And decorate train cars and discover the joy of helping others in Dinosaur Train: Dinocar Designer, a sticker-filled expressive experience for preschool-aged children mixing creativity and consideration.
New resources such as Pinkalicious activity videos and printables and a family-oriented book list will be available on the updated PBS KIDS for Parents site. Teachers can turn to PBS LearningMedia for collections of classroom resources, clips and activities connected to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, such as the “Life’s Little Lessons” collection, as well as resources from Pinkalicious & Peterrific, and more. The site now includes features such as simple browsing by curriculum area, state/national standards and grade; improved search functionality; a refreshed look and easier access to local PBS station resources.
Season 5 of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the top-rated, Emmy-winning PBS KIDS series from Fred Rogers Productions, will premiere next summer. Featuring 20 episodes plus a half-hour special, S5 will address key universal themes for preschoolers and their parents, including managing sibling rivalry, maintaining calm at mealtimes, missing loved ones, growing up, coping with accidents, and more through the show’s hallmark musical strategies. In addition, three of the series’ most popular strategies will be revisited through brand-new stories. Plus, Daniel will get to meet fun new neighbors who are sure to become viewer favorites, too.
“Research shows that Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood nurtures empathy and strengthens emotional recognition, important skills for preschoolers,” said Linda Simensky, Vice President, Children’s Programming, PBS. “This series is the ‘go-to’ resource for parents who are navigating life with their young ones, and we’re excited to provide even more effective strategies to help their kids learn and grow in Season 5.”
“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood truly resonates with young children and their parents, and we’re thrilled to bring a brand-new season of the standout series to PBS KIDS,” said Paul Siefken, President and CEO, Fred Rogers Productions. “Season 5 will bring wonderful new friends to the Neighborhood, along with exciting new experiences for Daniel — and young viewers nationwide.”
In conjunction with the S5 premiere, new Daniel Tiger digital content for kids, parents, and teachers will launch in summer 2020.
PBS KIDS Back-to-School Programming:
“PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC: A Pinkaperfect Birthday”
Premieres and streams August 5
Pinkalicious is excited for her most pinkaperfect birthday party ever! During the festivities, Pinkalicious receives a mysterious gift that makes her birthday wish come true – she can turn anything pink! But not everyone shares her love of a pinkafied world. Pinkalicious and Peter take a trip to Fairyland to find the gift-giver – the Birthday Fairy – hoping she can help restore Pinkville to its proper colors.
PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC episodes:
- “Jumping for Joy/The Pinkatoo” (August 6) Peter thinks he’s too short to do fun activities as well as Pinkalicious or Rafael, so he makes shoes that let you jump really high! But he and Pinkalicious will need to learn how to jump properly if they’re going to make it to the park in time to play basketball.
- Pinkalicious sees a pinkatoo, a rare music-loving bird that hasn’t been seen in Pinkville for 53 years! Now everyone wants to see the pinkatoo, too. Pinkalicious, Peter, Rafael and Jasmine set out to find that bird!
- “Knights of the Pink Table/Musical Mix Up” (August 7) The Knights of the Pink Table are ready to go on a new quest! Peter wants to go too, but he’s not a knight. Even with help from Pinkalicious the Brave and Jasmine the Daring, how will he go from being the Squire of the Scooter to Peter the Courageous?
- Peter’s Kazoo Club is about to have its first meeting! But after a strange encounter with a sprite named Spritely, nothing in Pinkville sounds quite like it should. Pinkalicious and her friends will need to find Spritely and return all the sounds to their proper place so the kids can get kazoo-ing!
- “Whale of a Song/Pinkabubbles” (August 8) The Pinkerton family is going whale watching with Captain Jolly! While at sea they discover a lost baby whale. Will Pinkalicious’ whale song succeed in calling out to its mommy – one of Pinkville’s great pink whales?
- It seems like another fun-filled, bubble-blowing day in Pinkville – until Peter gets trapped in Pinkalicious’s huge bubble! Pinkalicious and friends chase Peter all around town. Will the Peter-bubble burst before they catch him?
DINOSAUR TRAIN
New episodes premiere and stream August 26. The PBS KIDS 24/7 channel and livestream will host a weekend-long marathon of Dinosaur Train, kicking off on Friday, August 23 at 7 PM as part of PBS KIDS Family Night and continues through 6 AM the morning of Monday, August 25.
- “The Tiny-saur Train/ How Many Horns?” While Mikey Microraptor is visiting Tiny at the family nest, next-door neighbor Larry Lambeosaurus tells Mikey that he can’t actually be a dinosaur, since he’s so small, and all dinosaurs are gigantic. Tiny and Mikey decide to show Larry he’s mistaken. They take the Dinosaur Train to find the tiniest dinosaur of all – in Jurassic China.
- Buddy and Tank Triceratops are best friends, and they share a love for comparing features. Tank, who has 3 horns, wonders why Mayor Kosmoceratops has 15, and Protoceratops has only 1. Buddy, Tank, and the other kids go on a quest to track down Ceratopsians with horns numbering from 1 to 15. In their travels, they end up meeting “the Queen,” an amazing Late Cretaceous Regaliceratops, who has a very decorative frill that almost rivals Kosmoceratops for number of horns!
- “Mom Was a Kid Once” Part 1 – After Shiny and Annie have a disagreement while exploring a local cave, Mom recalls a similar disagreement with her best friend, Tilly Pteranodon, when she was a kid. Tilly happens to be visiting that day and the kids get to meet her for the first time. Mom and Tilly have a great reunion, yet they have very different memories of what their childhood disagreement was about — except that it was about an adventure in a swamp and a swamp-dwelling creature. To clear things up, Mom, Tilly, Tiny, Shiny, and Annie go back to Mom and Tilly’s old neighborhood and the swamp.
- Part 2 – Mom and Tilly (along with Tiny, Shiny, and Annie) return to their old neighborhood to explore the swamp where they used to play as kids and had a disagreement. The disagreement was about a swamp creature – was it a friend or foe? Mom and Tilly discover the creature, who is still there, is a friend! She is Goldie the Globidens, a marine creature who eats mostly shellfish. Mom recalls that she was scared of Goldie as a kid and that that was the crux of her disagreement with Tilly. But, that was then, and now their friendship is patched up and strong again – a good example for Shiny and Annie.
- “Gilbert the Conductor/A Clubhouse of Their Own” The Conductor’s nephew Gilbert has been taking Conductor courses at the Troodon Academy, and has finally graduated to Cadet Conductor! The kids are thrilled – will Gilbert get his own Dinosaur Train to conduct? The answer comes when the Conductor gets sick and can’t do his job, including calling out the station stops! He appoints new Cadet Gilbert to run the Dinosaur Train until he gets his voice back. The strain of running the train by himself wears heavily on Gilbert, and our kids step in to help him run it. Gilbert learns it takes a team to get the job done and keep the train running. There’s big relief when the real Conductor gets his voice back and goes back to running things. No one’s more relieved than Gilbert!
- Our kids want their own clubhouse, separate from the family nest. They try out several locations – Tiny’s Tiny Place, Dad’s Thinking Tree, a large Don-made hole – but none of them are the right fit. Eventually, the kids (with the help of Mom and Dad), build their own clubhouse using natural materials.
- “A Brand-New Species” Part 1 – The Conductor and the kids are out digging in a favorite fossil spot, out past the Big Pond. Buddy turns up something that the Conductor doesn’t recognize. It’s an excellent fossil – he guesses that they may have discovered a whole new Jurassic species! They all carefully finish digging out the beautifully intact theropod raptor skeleton and bring it to Troodon Town, where they can examine it at the Science labs at Troodon Academy. The experts agree: The Conductor and the kids have discovered a new Jurassic dinosaur!
- Part 2 – Buddy gets the idea to travel to the Early Jurassic and meet an example of their new discovery, a theropod they named “Buddysaurus.” Unfortunately, since this is a brand-new-discovery, there is no train to the home of the Buddysaurus, nor a train station! The Conductor decides to take them all to the Early Jurassic, and hike from the nearest station to find this new theropod. And, they do! They discover that the theropod is actually called a “Dracoraptor.” Our kids invite him to come back to Troodon Town with them so they can present him to the Troodon Scientists.
- “Do’s Hole-iday/We’re Not All Dinosaurs” When Don is told he can’t dig any more holes around the nest, he complains that he needs his own day just for digging holes — a hole-iday! The kids make up an imaginary holiday just for Don and recruit the Oryctodromeus to help dig all the holes Don could ever hope for.
- The Pteranodon kids meet a new, small mammal friend, Adele Alphadon, and introduce her and their Big Pond friend, Cindy Cimolestes, to a new concept — that not all Mesozoic creatures are dinosaurs. And that includes the Pteranodons! They live in a diverse world.
DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD: Family Week
- “Margaret’s Birthday Buddy/ Margaret’s Birthday Party” (September 16) The Tiger Family is busy preparing for Margaret’s birthday party. Daniel struggles when the attention is not on him until he figures out that he can be a “tigertastic” birthday buddy and help make Margaret’s day special.
- Margaret’s birthday party is underway, and Daniel is feeling left out. Daniel remembers he can be a “grr-ific” birthday buddy, so he leads Margaret and friends in a silly panda game and an original birthday song!
- “Find What Makes Your Family Special/ Family Day” (September 17) Katerina wishes she had a baby sister like Baby Margaret to play with. She learns that even though she doesn’t have a baby sister, there are other wonderful things that make her family special.
- It’s Family Day at the Neighborhood Library! Daniel learns that each family is different and special in its own way, and the Tiger Family performs a special song.
- “Daniel Likes to Be with Dad/ Daniel Likes to Be with Mom” (September 18) Daniel and Dad Tiger spend the whole day together searching for seashells, picking apples and even a special surprise. But when things don’t go as planned, Dad and Daniel remember that it doesn’t matter what they do, they just enjoy being together.
- Daniel is thrilled to spend the day with Mom — they even turn Mom’s old wagon into a Trolley together! Although the wagon doesn’t turn out perfectly, it doesn’t matter because they’re just happy to be with one another.
- “The Family Campout/A Game Night for Everyone” (September 19) Daniel and Dad Tiger head to the “Dad and Me” Campout, joined by his friends and their dads. When Katerina arrives with her mom, she notices that she’s the only one who brought her mom. Henrietta assures Katerina that all families are different, and that’s okay.
- Daniel and Mom are on their way to “Mom and Me” Game Night when they run into O and X the Owl. O isn’t sure if he can go to Game Night without a mom, but Uncle X assures him that he has his uncle, who loves him very much, to bring him.
- “Daniel’s Grr-ific Grandpere/ Making Mozies with Nana” (September 20) Daniel Tiger is excited to spend the whole day with his grandpa — Grandpere! Whether they’re riding on Grandpere’s boat, sorting through his treasures or even just relaxing on the sandy shore, they love the special time they have together.
- Daniel Tiger spends the whole day with Jodi and her Nana. Jodi and Nana love the special things they do together, like baking sweet treats and even coloring.
